Pittsfield City Council Revisits Plastic Bag Ban

Five years ago, local activist and 2016 Candidate for State Senate, Rinaldo Del Gallo brought a petition to the Pittsfield City Council to ban single use plastic bags. According to The Berkshire Eagle the council will revisit the issue in it's second full council meeting of 2018 on Tuesday.

What's the difference this time around? Since first consideration by the council, many other towns in the county have adopted a similar ban, bringing the total up to seven municipalities in all, in addition to the fact that the petition now has the backing of The Green Commission.

Much like the Styrofoam ban that went into effect in July of 2016, businesses located in Pittsfield would not be permitted to bag items in single use plastic bags, improving the city's effort to help reduce the 100 Billion plastic bags that we go through in the US annually.

In my mind, it's kind of a no brainier. Other cities and town across Massachusetts and the country have be doing this for years, including neighboring towns of Dalton and Lenox. I grocery shop at The Price Chopper in Lenox, and more often then not, also end up at the Marshalls in the same plaza (I have an issue with shopping, O.K.? Don't judge) I'll be the first the admit, it did take a little adjusting in the beginning, I'd say probably the first few times I went there, I forgot about it until I got to the check out. Anticipating this, the grocery chain provided small reusable bags free of charge, for the first month maybe? They also have numerous other larger reusable bags for sale at a small purchase price. Marshalls on the other hand, although they have reusable bags for sale, simply made the switch to paper bags. Either the transition was quite easy.

While discussing this with a group of friends yesterday, my buddy commented that he saw a downfall in the sense that he reuses the single use plastic bags in his home and for his lunch for work. I offered to buy him a lunch box, his rebuttal, "I'll forget it at work." Touche. The point is, yes, there are likely some adjustments you will need to make in your daily life, but those adjustments will soon because habits.

What do you think about the possibility of a Plastic Bag Ban in Pittsfield?